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FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School

3-29-2012

Selected Repertoire for the Tenor Voice

Scott T. Tripp
Florida International University, tenor@scotttripp.com

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Tripp, Scott T., "Selected Repertoire for the Tenor Voice" (2012). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 629.
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 FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Miami, Florida

SELECTED REPERTOIRE FOR THE TENOR VOICE

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF MUSIC

by

Scott Terence Tripp

2012
To: Dean Brian D. Schriner
College of Architecture and the Arts

This thesis, written by Scott Terence Tripp and entitled Selected Repertoire for the
Tenor Voice, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is
referred to you for judgment.

We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved.

__________________________________________
John Augenblick

__________________________________________
Robert Dundas

__________________________________________
Joel Galand

__________________________________________
Kathleen Wilson, Major Professor

Date of Defense: March 29, 2012

The thesis of Scott Terence Tripp is approved.

__________________________________________
Dean Brian D. Schriner
College of Architecture and the Arts

__________________________________________
Dean Lakshmi N. Reddi
University Graduate School

Florida International University, 2012

ii
 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

SELECTED REPERTOIRE FOR THE TENOR VOICE

by

Scott Terence Tripp

Florida International University, 2012

Miami, Florida

Professor Kathleen Wilson, Major Professor

This thesis presents extended program notes for a seventy-minute vocal graduate

recital consisting of the following repertoire for tenor: Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata

Ich armer Mensch ich Sündenknecht; two songs from the eighteenth-century Spanish

collection Tonadillas Escénicas; Gaetano Donizetti's song La derniére nuit d'un novice;

Francis Poulenc's song cycle Tel jour telle nuit; Jake Heggie's song cycle Friendly

Persuasions; and John Corigliano's Three Irish Folk Songs for Flute and Tenor. Spanning

four centuries of music and representing four different language traditions, these works

are sufficiently representative of the tenor repertoire. The content of this thesis features

detailed information on these works through historical study, and musical analysis.

iii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. JOHAN SEBASTIAN BACH:

Ich armer mensch ich Sündenknecht...............................…………………….…1
Baroque Sacred Poetry and the Protestant Reformation………………………..1
Musical Allegory…………………………………..……………………………3

II. SPANISH SONG IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

La tonadilla escénica..............................................………..……………...….18
Two songs………………………………....………………...….............….....19

III. GAETANO DONIZETTI

Donizetti in Paris..............................................................................................21
La derniére nuit d'un novice.............................................................................22

IV. FRANCIS POULENC:

A Poet's Composer.........................................................……...........................27
Poulenc and Bernac.....................…………….………………………………28
Poulenc and Éluard...........................................................................................28
Tel jour telle nuit...………....…...……………………………….……………29

V. HOMAGE TO POULENC
Jake Heggie and His Idol....................................................………………….38
Wanda Landowska.....………..………….…………..............……………….39
Pierre Bernac...........................………………….………...………………….40
Raymonde Linnossier.......................................................................................41
Paul Éluard.......................................................................................................44
Contrast in Heggie's “Homage” and “Tel jour telle nuit”...................……….46
Conclusion........................................................................................................48

VI. JOHN CORIGLIANO:

Three Irish Folk Songs………...........................................………………..….49

REFERENCES………………………………………………….……………………….53

iv
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE

1.1 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Opening ritornello ...................................................4

1.2 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Ornamentation of the solo line ................................5

1.3 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Rising melodic sequence .........................................5

1.4 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Furcht und Zittern ...................................................6

1.5 Bach: Ich armer Mensch. Chromatic “Furcht und Zittern” passage………………...9

1.6 Bach: Ich armer Mensch. Analytical graph of “Furcht und Zittern” passage ...................... .9

1.7 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Just and Unjust ....................................................... 10

1.8 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Recitative I. The wings of the morning ............................. 12

1.9 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Recitative I. Dramatic climax............................................ 12

1.10 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria II. Appogiatura......................................................... 13

1.11 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Extended “erbarme Dich” ................................... 14

1.12 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Falling tears .......................................................... 14

1.13 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Sequence ............................................................. 15

1.14 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Recitative II. Coda.......................................................... 16

2.1 Rosales: Canción contra las madamitas gorgoritedoras. Warbling ........................... 19

3.1 Donizetti: La dernière nuit d'un novice. Introduction ................................................ 24

3.2 Donizetti: La dernière nuit d'un novice. Modulation .................................................. 24

4.1 Poulenc: Tel jour, telle nuit, “Bonne journée.” Dynamic and registral climax ........... 30

4.2 Poulenc: Tel jour, telle nuit, “Bonne journée.” Octatonic scale .................................. 31

4.3 Poulenc: Tel jour, telle nuit, “A toute brides.” Tuning violin………………………...34

v
4.4 Poulenc: Tel jour, telle nuit, “Figure de force.” Textural contrast……...………… ...35

4.5 Poulenc: Tel jour, telle nuit, “Nous avons fait.” Resemblance to “Bonne journée”………. ...37

5.1 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Wanda Landowska.” Opening measures……… ..... 40

5.2 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Raymonde Linnossier.” Tonal ambiguity……...…...43

5.3 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Raymonde Linnossier.” Return to B-flat major ……...… ...43

5.4 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Raymonde Linnossier.” Final chord……...…… ...44

5.5 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Paul Éluard.” Opening measures…………………...45

5.6 Figure 5.6 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Paul Éluard.” Textural contrast…….…...46

5.7 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Wanda Landowska” ………………………............. 46

5.8 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Pierre Bernac”……………………………………...47

5.9 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Raymonde Linnossier”……………………...……...47

5.10 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Paul Éluard”...……………………………………. 48

6.1 Corigliano, Three Irish Folksongs, “The Salley Gardens.” Simultaneous meters…….…...50

6.2 Corigliano; Three Irish Folksongs, “The Foggy Dew.” Abrupt modulation……………....51

6.3 Corigliano: Three Irish Folksongs, “The Salley Gardens.” Rhythmic alignment……….....51

6.4 Corigliano: Three Irish Folksongs, “She Moved Through the Fair”…………………………52

vi
 Chapter I

JOHAN SEBASIAN BACH

Ich armer Mensch ich Sündenknecht

Bach's Cantata No. 55, Ich armer Mensch ich Sündenknecht, was written for the

twenty-second Sunday after Trinity. It was written fairly late in his career, in 1726,

nearly 20 years after his first cantata. It is part of the third cycle he wrote for the

liturgical year during his time at Leipzig. While Bach was cantor in Leipzig, he

endeavored to perform each Sunday only cantatas that he himself had composed. On rare

occasions, he would borrow cantatas in part or in whole from his Weimar days. In

Weimar, he had written several cantatas for the court, many of them now lost. The

second aria, second recitative, and final chorus of Ich armer Mensch were most likely

borrowed from one of these lost Weimar cantatas. (Durr, 618)

Ich armer Mensch is written for solo tenor with a short chorale at the end. It

consists of Aria 1 – Recitative 1 – Aria 2 – Recitative 2 – Chorale. The form of the arias

resembles that of the concerto, from which the cantata is thought to have developed. In

fact, the term cantata was not used in Bach's time, and these works were often referred to

as concerti.

Baroque Sacred Poetry and the Protestant Reformation

The cantata is the main genre through which J. S. Bach is familiar to choral

musicians. His solo cantatas are numerous, but are less well known. The cantata was a

musical genre of great importance during Bach's time, the church still being the most

important venue for music performance. The German Baroque church cantata differs

1
considerably from the sacred music that predominated in earlier periods, and this was

partly because of the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther taught that the Word of God was "dead" unless it was

proclaimed to the masses and that is was vital to keep the Bible linguistically accessible.

Sacred cantatas, especially those of Bach, embodied that principle by placing importance

on their text, specifically by setting the text in a descriptive and impassioned manner.

Moreover, these texts, comprised of German verse written expressly for the cantata,

served to interpret and reinforce the Gospel reading. Thus, Lutheran cantatas had a

didactic function; they served to explicate that day’s reading and complement the sermon.

In contrast, the polyphonic music used in the Catholic liturgy utilized the Latin (Vulgate)

texts. Unlike the Lutheran cantata, the counter-reformation motet did not serve as a

hermeneutical conduit, conveying the gospel’s hidden message to the congregation. The

cantata usually occurred in the church service after the gospel reading, but before the

creed. This way, the cantata functions as a sung sermon, in accordance with the teachings

of Luther.

Bach employed a number of different librettists, many of whom he would work

with for long periods of time. The librettist for this particular cantata is unknown, but he

clearly is writing for that Sunday’s Gospel reading, making several allusions to its parable

of the unfaithful steward. This parable contrasts the mercy of God with the sinful nature

of man. The subject of this cantata is that very contrast.

2
 Musical Allegory

James Day writes in The Literary Background of Bach's Cantatas, "A musical

pattern cannot be said to mean anything extra-musical by itself, but in conjunction with

its text, an emotional association developed which coloured the significance of a

particular musical phrase" (Day 1962, 82) This chapter focuses primarily on Bach's idea

of musical drama, the tools he used to convey drama in his cantatas, and how he applied

those ideas to this particular work. All musicians are familiar with melodic patterns that

seem to mimic or reflect the meaning of the words to which they are set. This technique

is often referred to as "text painting" or "musical allegory." For example, composers

might use repeated arpeggiated figures to represent waves, fast scalar figures to reflect

fear, and sharply differentiated tonalities to evoke shifting emotional states. These are

techniques of which Bach was fond, and he puts them to effective use in this cantata.

The confession of sin, fixation on guilt, and fear of judgment were frequent topics

in the sacred works of Bach and many of his contemporaries, again, due largely to the

ideas of the Protestant Reformation. According to Arnold Shering, a well-known German

musicologist, "[Bach's] tenor cantata “Ich armer Mensch”...intensifies the pathos of

Schütz [an earlier cantata composer] to a confession of sin amounting almost to spiritual

self-torture. Hardly ever– not even in Wagner’s Parsifal– has the nullity of human nature

and its need for redemption been expressed so passionately and so acutely as here, with

no glimmer of hope or comfort till the end" (Shering, 1930, 1). Indeed, the intensity with

which this cantata develops the theme of hopelessness abates only at the very last

moment, when a glimmer of possible redemption offers comparative relief to the listener.

3
Now we will examine how Bach's setting of the text amplifies the self-torture conveyed

by this anonymous librettist.

The following is an English translation of the text of the first movement. All

translations in this chapter are by Richard D. P. Jones from Alfred Durr's The Cantatas of

J. S. Bach, pages 616-618.

I, poor man, servant of sin,

I go before God's Presence
For judgment with fear and trembling.
He is just, I unjust.
I, poor man, servant of sin!

While this is a short text, Bach draws it out to yield the longest movement in the cantata.

Before the tenor voice enters, Bach has already established an anguished tone, painting a

musical picture of the wretched sinner writhing in pain and fear. Figure 1.1 shows a

portion of the opening orchestral ritornello.

Figure 1.1. Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Opening ritornello.

4
 Of particular interest is the instrumentation, which makes this cantata unique.

There is no viola, and this movement in particular is dominated by the woodwinds: flauto

traverso, and oboe d'amore. The woodwinds and the two violins play the rising and

falling melody together largely in parallel thirds and sixths, creating a thick texture for

much of this movement. Everything about Bach's methods in the opening of this aria

evokes that image of the writhing sinner. The rising and falling melody, the parallel

voicing, and the top-heavy instrumentation, all combine to paint a very striking picture.

When the tenor enters, Bach favors the higher —more difficult and strained—portion of

his range, adding a palpable physical dimension to the more abstract musical symbols of

suffering. Bach uses musical gestures in the solo tenor line to depict the sinner's fruitless

struggle against sin. He makes extensive use of dissonant, non-harmonic tones, such as

the neighbor tone on armer and the appoggiaturas on Mensch and Sündenknecht. The

tied eighth note on the second iteration of armer (in m. 5 of Figure 1.2) forms a dissonant

suspension over a dominant chord played by the woodwinds and continuo; its resolution

is decorated by an anticipation. Shortly afterwards (mm. 7 and 11 of the figure), rising

arpeggiated figures outline dissonant chords on the crucial word Sündenknecht; the

second of these is approached by a descending diminished-third leap from Eb to C#— an

effective emblem of pathos that recurs throughout the aria.

5
 Figure 1.2 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Ornamentation of the solo line.

Bach repeats these same figures again after moving from G minor to D minor,

after which he moves to the next line of text, “Ich geh vor Gottes Angesichte mit Furcht

und Zittern zum Gerichte.” Here, the sequence shown in Figure 1.3 sounds almost

sluggish when compared with the quicker, more melodically interesting figures the tenor

sings everywhere else in the movement. This sluggishness, along with the rising pattern

of the sequence, represents the hesitation and rising anxiety felt by the sinner as he

approaches the judgment seat.

Figure 1.3 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Rising melodic sequence.

Perhaps the most interesting section in the aria coincides with Bach’s setting of

the words Furcht und Zittern (fear and trembling). First, the word Furcht features a

prominent chromatic escape tone, and then the word Zittern is sung on an elongated

wavering figure featuring dissonant lower neighbor tones, with the final cadence

occurring on the word Gerichte (judgment). (See Example 1.4)

6
 Figure 1.4 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Furcht und Zittern

The musical allegory, however, is not limited to the melodic figures. The

harmonic rhythm speeds up considerably, as the orchestra moves quickly through a

complex chord progression. Then, when the tenor repeats the words “Ich armer

Mensch,” he is doubled by the violins to demonstrate the intensity of his words (Figure

1.5).

Immediately thereafter, for the repetition of “Ich geh vor Gottes Angesichte,” the

entire orchestra drops out, with the exception of the continuo. Here, the tenor repeats

several by now familiar melodic patterns––including the diminished-third leap mentioned

above––and then moves into a dramatic cadence via a chromatic descent from tonic to

dominant on the words Furcht und Zittern, all highlighting the singer's fear and

hesitation. The tenor’s chromatic descent imitates the bass line at a distance of half a

7
measure. The chromatic descending tetrachord from scale degree 1 to scale degree 5 was

a common Baroque musical locus topicus, the so-called passus duriusculis, which

signified lament or suffering (see Rosand 1979 for the roots of this musical topos in the

works of Monterverdi and other representatives of the early Italian Baroque. Perhaps

Bach’s most famous use of this topos is his setting of Crucifixus in the Credo of the B-

minor Mass.)

The harmonic progression in the “Furcht und Zittern” passage is complex and

leaves the listener without a clear sense of the tonal center until the cadential arrival

itself. For example, the resolution of the diminished-seventh chord in m. 5 of Figure 1.5

is elided, the bass C# passing directly to C-natural instead of moving first to D and then

passing to C. Such elisions were considered startling effects; Baroque theorists deemed

them more appropriate to theatrical music (the stylus theatralis) rather to church music.1

The arrival of the dominant is obscured at first by a triple dissonance in the melody: the

tenor arpeggiates D–Bb–G# over the bass A in (see m. 7 of Figure 5). This dissonant

formation can be understood as a triple suspension from the chromatic dominant

preparation on G# in the previous measure. (Note that, once again, the tenor’s melody

incorporates the plaintive diminished-third leap, Bb–G#.)

1
It was a contemporary of Bach’s, the theorist and composer Johann David Heinichen (1683–1729), who,
in his 1728 treatise Der Generalbass in der Composition, classified the various types of complex dissonant
treatment typical of the theatrical style––that is, of the style of music heard above all in opera. Whereas in
the stricter style associated with sacred polyphony (the gebundene Stil, or “bound style”), dissonances had
to be prepared and resolved according to a limited number of strict conventions, the freer textures
associated with the theatrical style permitted a variety of temporal displacements––elisions, anticipations,
and so on. (Heinichen would have classified the elision I have identified in the Bach as an anticipatio
transitus––the anticipation of a passing tone.) Heinichen’s treatise is an indispensible source for
understanding how composers of Bach’s time understood their craft. For a translation, see Heinichen
1986.

8
 The passage as a whole, upon reflection, does make perfect tonal sense: mm. 1–3

of Figure 5 prolongs iv, inflecting it to a bII6 (the so-called Neapolitan) by means of a 5–

6 motion over the bass in m. 3. Then, a linear descent in the bass from G3 to G#2

connects this Neapolitan harmony to a V6/5-of-V, which resolves to V. The passage is

based on the following standard progression:

5—b6 6/5 6/4 7

Bass: G [octave descent] G# A D
Harmony: IV bII V/V V I

Figure 1.6 shows how the passage elaborates this basic tonic–subdominant–dominant

syntax, a syntax obscured by the passing, mostly chromatic bass line in mm. 4–6 of

Figure 1.5 and the piling up of suspensions and other dissonant figuration in the tenor

melody. The drama is at its height here with all these allegorical devices.

Figure 1.5 Bach: Ich armer Mensch. Chromatic “Furcht und Zittern” passage.

9
 Figure 1.6 Bach: Ich armer Mensch. Analytical graph of “Furcht und Zittern” passage.

New material follows with the next line of text: “Er ist gerecht, ich ungerecht.” In

this section Bach concentrates on highlighting the contrast between gerecht and

ungerecht (just and unjust). Large intervals in the melodic line proclaim God’s justice.

For each proclamation of Er ist gerecht, the tenor is alone with the continuo. The

orchestra then enters when the melody arrives at the long note on ungerecht.

(See Figure 1.7)

10
 Figure 1.7 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Just and Unjust

This short phrase occurs happens twice in this section. In both instances, the first

note in the melodic figure is tonicized, and the repetition in different major tonalities is

used to move to the key of C minor. The sustained note on ungerecht (unjust) falls both

times on an unstable Eb, which forms successive dissonances with the A, F#, and D in the

bass (locally, it forms a flat ninth with the dominant of G minor). The harmonic contrast

between gerecht and ungerecht is very interesting here, with the former given consonant,

triadic support.

The movement continues for another forty-two measures, using the same

allegorical techniques, and concludes by reprising the orchestral introduction. Examining

Bach's toolbox of allegorical devices reveals the extent to which Bach exploits them to

intensify this short text. This is what makes Baroque music in general so exciting.

11
 There is a long recitative before the next aria. In the baroque sacred cantata, the

recitative serves that same expositional purpose with which we are familiar in opera.

This recitative has a lot of text, and is the most extreme example in the cantata of the self-

torture to which Arnold Shering refers.

I have acted against God,

And that path
Which he prescribed for me
I have not followed.
Where now? Shall I choose the wings of the morning?
For my flight,
Which would take me to the uttermost sea?
Then the hand of the Most High would still find me.
And chastise me with the rods of sin.
Ah yes! Even if hell had a bed
For me and my sins,
The wrath of the Highest would still be there.
The earth does not protect me:
It threatens to devour me, an object of horror;
And if I would leap up to heaven,
There dwells God, who pronounced judgment on me.

The recitative is intended to resemble speech. Because the solo voice in

recitatives is accompanied only minimally by the basso continuo, there is little

opportunity for musical allegory anywhere but in the melodic line. Because the text in a

declamatory, speech-like style, there are no textual repetitions and therefore no

opportunities for repeated motives or gestures. Bach does, however, accomplish some

exciting text painting in this section with the solo line alone. For example, he uses a very

quick, rising pattern on “Soll ich der Morgenrote Flugel, zu meiner Flucht erkiesen,”

shown in Figure 1.8, to represent the attempted flight of the soul. The dramatic climax at

the end of the recitative, when the sinner arrives in heaven only to find God's vengeance

12
awaiting him, is marked by the highest notes in the movement, the apex occurring on the

word Gott. (Figure 1.9)

Figure 1.8 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Recitative I. The wings of the morning

Figure 1.9 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Recitative I. Dramatic climax

The focus in the second aria moves from guilt and self-torture to one of repentance

and pleading for mercy.

Have mercy!
Let my tears soften You,
Let them reach Your Heart;
For Jesus Christ's sake,
Let Your jealous fury be stilled!
Have mercy!

13
This is following the normal progression of cantatas on sin and repentance. The aria

stands in complete contrast to the first, and Bach uses a different set of allegorical tools.

The orchestration is lighter, using only flute and continuo. He uses the appoggiatura

frequently as a sighing or pleading gesture, as shown here in Figure 1.10.

Figure 1.10 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria II. Appogiatura

Bach uses some variant of this motive whenever the phrase Erbarme dich (have mercy on

me) recurs. These words are always repeated, with one iteration always elongated to

emphasize the pleading tone (see Figure 1.11).

Figure 1.11 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Extended “erbarme Dich”

The beautiful solo flute sections in this aria evoke the same kind of tone. The

sections in this aria that stand in contrast to the “erbarme dich” verses occur during the

words “lass die Tränen dich erweichen (let my tears soften you)” and “lass um Jesu

Christi Willen (for Jesus Christ’s sake).” For the former, Bach uses a descending melodic

14
line to highlight the image of falling tears. Furthermore, to achieve a sobbing feeling, he

places the two long notes in this figure on the two strong beats of the measure, within a

descending scale. He arrives at a high note on the downbeat of the measure, and quickly

descends into another arrival on the third beat, creating a sound remarkably similar to

natural sobbing. (Figure 1.12)

Figure 1.12 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Falling tears

When the sinner reaches his most desperate state, the dramatic highpoint of the aria,

he invokes Christ’s intercession. Shown in Figure 1.13, Bach employs a sequence

featuring a dramatic melodic leap of a sixth. Bach uses the sequence to build tension as

the sinner becomes increasingly desperate, and modulating quickly from G minor back to

the original key of D minor. The sequence ends on IV of the original key, and, after a

brief musical pause, the sinner seems to have collected himself and returns to the original

theme with an authentic cadence in the original key.

15
 Figure 1.13 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Aria I. Sequence

In the final recitative in C minor, the sinner has at last been redeemed, again according

to the typical progression of these kinds of works.

Have mercy!
However now
I am comforted,
I will not stand before judgment
and rather before the throne of grace
I go to my holy Father.
I hold His Son up to Him,
His Passion, His Redemption,
how He, for my guilt
has paid and done enough,
and pray Him for mercy,
from henceforth I will do no more.
Then God will take me into His grace again.

The recitative is followed by a light-hearted chorale—one that should come as a

great relief to the listener, for the unrelenting intensity of this cantata does not abate until

the last two measures of the recitative leading into the chorale. The sinner vehemently

proclaims that he will never sin again, landing at the word tun (commit) on a iii chord in

the home key of C minor, which Bach uses to pivot into Bb major, in which key he

cadences three times in a light-hearted coda that leads pleasantly into the final chorale.

16
 Figure 1.14 Bach: Ich armer Mensch, Recitative II. Coda

The final chorale is very light-hearted, and typical of a Bach chorale. Like the

second aria and recitative, it was not originally composed for this cantata. It serves as the

final and much delayed happy ending to the cantata. It calls for a four-part chorus

(soprano, alto, tenor, bass), joined by the full orchestra.

Although I have been separated from You,

yet I return again;
even so Your Son set the example for us
through His anguish and mortal pain.
I do not deny my guilt,
but Your grace and mercy
is much greater than the sin
that I constantly discover in me.

17
 Chapter II

SPANISH SONG IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

La tonadilla escénica

La tonadilla escénica was a Spanish art form similar to the Italian intermedio from the

previous century. The intermedio was a mature musical genre in the seventeenth century,

but by the mid-eighteenth century, it had evolved in Spain into the tonadilla. Like the

intermedio, the early tonadilla was a short event, occurring between the acts of a play or

other theatrical production. For the latter half of the century no theatrical presentation in

Madrid was without an accompanying tonadilla. Although the word tonadilla is

translated “little song,” these works were most often full theatrical events themselves,

featuring singing, acting and dancing. The word escénica is added to distinguish the

theatrical tonadillas from the purely musical ones. Tonadillas escénicas were always

comical or satirical in nature, less than thirty minutes in duration, and usually completely

unrelated to the action of the play in which they were housed.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, tonadillas had evolved into complex dramas

that resembled short operas, and on occasion they were even performed as stand-alone

works calling for more than ten performers. The growing complexity of the genre is the

most probable reason for its extinction. As tonadillas became longer and more elaborate,

the genre outgrew its function as an interlude, and found itself without a venue in the

evolving romantic theater (Alier).

18
 Two songs

José Subirá was professor of piano and composition at the University of Madrid and an

accomplished musicologist. He is responsible for most of the scholarly research on the

tonadilla genre. Subirá compiled a collection of songs extracted from various tonadillas

that are representative of the genre. These two songs are from that collection. Subirá

gave titles to the excerpted songs and edited the songs slightly to give them what he calls

“conclusive form,” as many of them are not easily extractable from the larger work

(Subirá 1956).

Canción contra las madamitas gorgoritedoras is translated “Song Against Warbling

Madames.” The song is from a tonadilla by Antonio Rosales, El recitado, that satirizes

Italian recitative. The tonadilla was written in 1775. In the text of the song, a gentleman

harshly condemns fickle women, especially those who warble, but praises the elegant one

who sings in Italian and wears all the latest fashions. An often repeated melismatic

passage mimics the warbling women.

Figure 2.1 Rosales: Canción contra las madamitas gorgoritedoras. Warbling

“Canción contra los violetistas” is from La Necedad, a tonadilla written in 1790 by

composer Mariano Bustos. The song title is translated “Song Against the False Ones.” It

19
is a comical text in which a simpleton character criticizes scholars and philosophers as

sterile, false drones. Their arrogance irritates him. He makes fun of the manner in which

philosophers debate each other and insists that they are “living examples of the fact that

stupidity abounds in this world” (Subirá, 1956). The song features a long piano

introduction that leads into a strophic verse.

These two songs represent the tonadilla repertoire well. They are both strophic,

simple in form, structure, and harmony, and are set to satirical texts. The music is light-

hearted and pleasant, appropriate for its function as an interlude within a more serious

work.

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 Chapter III

GAETANO DONIZETTI

Donizetti in Paris

In the early nineteenth century, Italian bel canto opera was wildly popular, not only in

Italy, but also in France. Many Italian composers spent a great portion of their careers in

Paris, the so-called “capital of the nineteenth century,” writing and producing operas for

the Parisian public. Noting the incredible success in Paris of Bellini and Rossini,

Donizetti was eager to win a commission from Paris. After two failed attempts, he finally

had the chance to begin his Parisian career when he made his first visit in 1834, accepting

a commission by Rossini to write an opera for the Théâtre-Italien, the center of Italian

opera in France. Marino faliero, an opera based on the drama by Lord Byron from the

previous decade, was premiered in 1835 to mixed reviews but significant public approval.

After Donizetti returned to Naples, his fame continued to grow with the incredible

success of his most famous opera, Lucia di Lammermoor. Donizetti's success in Italy,

however, came at the cost of great frustration, as he battled against harsh censorship.

According to Julian Budden and Mary Anne Smart, “Almost all of Donizetti's serious

operas in the 1830s were in some way affected by censorship. Lucrezia Borgia was

banned in Naples, thanks to a dénouement in which five characters are murdered and to

its depiction of a historical figure who had living descendants; in most other cities, the

opera could be performed only in elaborate disguises, under titles such as Eustorgia da

Romano or Elisa Fosco” (Grove Dictionary On-line). Tragic endings and any references

to members of the current regime were prohibited by the Italian censorship machine. It

21
was this increasing difficulty, along with a series of personal tragedies including the loss

of his wife Virginia, that eventually prompted Donizetti to leave his native Italy

altogether. He arrived in Paris in 1838, where he spent the majority of the remainder of

his career. It was during this period that he began to write many songs and operas in the

French language, including two of his most notable and long-lived works, La Fille du

Regiment and La Favorite, both from 1840. In the final ten years of his life, Donizetti's

setting of French texts became incredibly fluent, although his style remained distinctly

Italian, as forward-looking French composers like Berlioz were quick to point out: “The

score of La fille du regiment is not at all one that either composer or the public takes

seriously. There is some harmony, some melody, some rhythmic effects, some

instrumental and vocal combinations; it is music, if one will, but not new music”

(Ashbrook, 234).

La dernière nuit d'un novice

La dernière nuit d'un novice was not dated when published, but given the fluent setting

of the French text, and the publication of a German-language song in the same set, it was

almost certainly composed after his visit to Vienna in 1843 and before 1846, when illness

caused his output to decline dramatically. Most of Donizetti's songs, of which there are

more than 250, were written in the style of the Italian opera aria and were often published

in sets in the manner of Rossini's Soirée musicales. This particular song belongs to a set

simply called Sept Arie. The seven songs are set to German, Italian, and French texts and

are unrelated except for their shared Italian aria style, and their joint publication.

22
 The text is by Adolphe Nourrit, a French poet with whom Donizetti often

collaborated. It details the last night of a novice monk before he takes his final vows,

including vows of silence and of celibacy. The novice is both eager and anxious; he

prays that his good angel will let him sleep and hasten the dawn. Sleep, however, does

not bring him the hoped-for relief. He is plagued in his dreams by “le Malin Esprit (The

Evil Spirit),” who at first simply tempts him with the vain pleasures of the world, but

later torments him with the image of a beautiful young girl whose heart is broken by a

young man. In the dream, the spirit tempts the novice to go and comfort her, but the

novice resists out of faithfulness to his religious commitment, or perhaps out of fear. It

becomes clear to the reader, after the novice has been terrified by images of hell, that the

protagonist himself is the man who broke the young girl's heart. Now he is desperately

seeking peace by committing his life to the church.

The simple accompaniment is a common characteristic of Donizetti's work. The

most striking feature of this song is the contrast between the characters of the Novice and

the Evil Spirit, and the song’s form is governed by their alternation. Each distinct section

coincides with a change of character, clearly marked in the score. The introduction and

each of the dream sequences are musically unique, but a repeated theme pervades each of

the waking sections, when the novice begs his guardian angel for the peace he so

desperately craves.

The introduction (Figure 3.1) immediately reveals the opera aria style with its

recitative-like monologue. With a beginning tempo marking of larghetto, the slow,

23
recitative passages are broken up by short, allegro outbursts featuring dotted rhythms that

betray the novice's conflicting emotions of anticipation and anxiety.

Figure 3.1 Donizetti: La dernière nuit d'un novice. Introduction

Beginning in m. 27, the repeated bon ange theme makes its first appearance. In each

instance of the theme, the novice appeals to his guardian angel for strength. The

introduction of this theme is harmonically identical in each repetition, and it is the most

harmonically interesting passage in this relatively simple piece. The melody and the bass

line move stepwise in contrary motion, leading from B major to a dramatic arrival in G

(Figure 3.2).

Figure 3.2 Donizetti: La dernière nuit d'un novice. Modulation

24
 By the end of each bon ange section, the novice has fallen asleep. In the second

and third instances, he falls asleep while reciting the Latin Angelus Dei, the traditional

Catholic prayer to the guardian angel. The Angelus Dei is replaced in Donizetti's Italian

version of the song with the Ave Maria, which demonstrates his acquired sensitivity to

French culture, where the Virgin Mary was not as religiously central as in Italy.

Each of the three Malin Esprit sections is musically unique. Each section begins

with a recitative that gives way to a different charming melody in which the spirit tempts

the novice. The melody then gives way to an agitated invitation to follow the spirit. In

its third appearance, the spirit invites the novice to give in and love the poor dying girl

(“Suis-moi, viens, viens!”).

Each successive appearance of the two different characters is more intense and

agitated than the previous one, illustrating the growing conflict between the novice's

conscious and unconscious mind. In each of the novice's appearances, this terraced

intensity is achieved musically through increased ornamentation of the same melody and

greater complexity of the accompaniment. In each of the spirit's appearances, there

appears a different melody altogether, but the terraced intensity is achieved simply by

faster tempi and louder dynamics.

This song is considerably longer than many of his others, but Donizetti's brilliant

dramatic pacing makes up for the unusual length. It was this gift for music drama that

captured the hearts of Donizetti's French audience. The Italian bel canto style was at the

height of its popularity in France during Donizetti's residency in the 1840's. Despite the

25
contempt of many of his French professional colleagues, the Parisian public was

delighted by Donizetti's marriage of their language to his native style.

26
 Chapter IV

FRANCIS POULENC

A Poet's Composer

Francis Poulenc was one of the most famous French composers of the twentieth century.

He is regarded by many as the “last great proponent of [French art song]” (Kimball 1996,

205). His fame was easily achieved on the merits of his music alone, although his

personality was also memorable. Sir Lennox Berkeley said of Poulenc's writing, “A

composer who uses the traditional idiom in such an individual manner that you can

recognize the music as his within the first few bars, may posses more true originality than

one who adopts a startling and revolutionary language” (Bernac 1977, 37).

Poulenc's music is distinctly French, and yet it is distinctly his own. He was

member of les six, a group of composers whose eclectic style was polemically conceived

as a response to Wagnerian and impressionistic styles. Poulenc wrote for practically

every imaginable medium, but his most numerous works, and perhaps his most famous,

are his mélodies, of which he wrote at least 146 (anecdotal evidence suggests that he may

have destroyed some of his own completed works). He had a special appreciation for

poetry and, likewise, poets had a special appreciation for Poulenc's settings. Poulenc had

a keen understanding of the poetry that he set, and he always managed to enhance its

meaning, never to alter it. Poulenc said, “The musical setting of a poem should be an act

of love, never a marriage of convenience” (Bernac 1997, 267), an analogy that had

special meaning for Poulenc. He was drawn to poetry that reflected conflict or contrast,

perhaps because of the many conflicts that he endured in his personal life. He was

27
described by a critic as “half bad-boy, half monk” (Ivry 1996, 8). Much of his work was

influenced by his relationships with close friends and lovers. Two significant friendships,

with the poet Paul Éluard and the singer Pierre Bernac, led to the creation of one of

Poulenc's most famous works, the song cycle Tel jour, telle nuit.

Poulenc and Bernac

One of Poulenc's longest friendships was with famous French baritone Pierre Bernac.

The two collaborated for twenty-five years, with Poulenc writing specifically for Bernac

on several occasions. Poulenc appreciated Bernac's ability to interpret his work with

little to no guidance. Over the years, Bernac became a musical consultant and a close

friend. Around Christmas of 1936, Poulenc was playing a new setting of Jean Cocteau

poetry for Bernac and seeking his approval. When it became clear that Bernac did not

care for the new music, Poulenc immediately tossed the manuscript into the lit fireplace,

and soon began work on a new cycle that would become Tel jour, telle nuit.

Poulenc and Éluard

The surrealist Paul Éluard was one of the most successful French poets. In the

words of Pierre Bernac, “no other has sung more eloquently of love- both human love

and love of humanity” (Bernac 1977, 92). Poulenc was attracted to the surrealist

movement and particularly to Éluard's poetry, with its frequent use of love as a theme.

Poulenc said of Éluard, “I had a weakness for Éluard right away, because he was the only

surrealist who tolerated music” (Ivry 1996, 96). Their collaboration, which began in

1935, produced 34 songs and several choral works. In Tel jour, telle nuit, Poulenc used

28
poems from Éluard's collection, Les yeux fertiles. He was drawn to these as love poems

and titled his nine-song cycle Tel jour, telle nuit (What a Day, What a Night), the

contrasting images of the masculine day and the feminine night being central to Éluard's

poetry. Perhaps Poulenc was most drawn to these poems because he related to their

depiction of the coexistence of opposites.

Tel jour, telle nuit

Francis Poulenc was renowned for his extraordinary understanding of poetry. It is

his understanding and enhancement of Éluard's poetry that makes this one of his most

famous vocal works. Bernac says of Poulenc's treatment of surrealist poetry, “These

modern poems are often rather obscure, but his musical setting always clarifies them.

Through his music they are given their correct punctuation (for most of the poems are

without punctuation, which can involve the reader in serious misconceptions)” (Bernac

1977, 39). Poulenc carefully structured the cycle, and individual songs should therefore

not be extracted for performance. True to Éluard's intentions, the less important poems

are set in songs that serve a connective role in the cycle. Poulenc calls these connecting

poems mélodies tremplins, or trampoline songs.

The first song, “Bonne journée (Good Day)” opens the cycle calmly, with hints of

both happiness and melancholy. The composer gives detailed instructions, keeping the

singer subdued to a soft mp until the final eleven measures when dawn arrives suddenly

and by surprise. Figure 4.1 shows the series of hairpin crescendo culminating in f at the

29
vocal climax on a-flat; the dynamic and registral climax are calibrated not only to each

other but to the moment of epiphany at dawn’s arrival.

Figure 4.1 Poulenc: Tel jour, telle nuit, “Bonne journée.” Dynamic and registral climax

A good day which began mournfully

dark under the green trees
but which suddenly drenched with dawn
entered my heart by surprise.
(Translations from Pierre Bernac’s The Interpretation of French Song, 40-45)

Although the composer keeps the singer emotionally subdued for the most part,

the pervasiveness of ascending scales betrays a hint of happiness or optimism. Poulenc

exploits both the diatonic and octatonic collections. Each stanza begins with an

ascending Lydian scale (a scale with a raised fourth scale degree). The second stanza

also features a complete ascending octatonic scale (Figure 4.2).

30
 Figure 4.2 Poulenc: Tel jour, telle nuit, “Bonne journée.” Octatonic scale

Poulenc's instructions for the second song, “Une ruine coquille vide,” are “very

quiet and unreal.” This song may confuse the listener, as sadness seems to characterize

the poetry, while the music does not sound particularly dreary. It helps to consider

Éluard's title for his poem, which Poulenc does not use. In fact, Poulenc does not use any

of the original literary titles in these songs. Éluard's title, “Je croyais le repos possible” is

translated “I thought rest was possible.” In light of the literary title, the poem takes on a

new meaning.

A ruin an empty shell

weeps into its apron
the children who play around it
make less sound than flies

it is midnight like an arrow

in a heart within reach
of the lively nocturnal glimmerings
that gainsay sleep

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Éluard's poetry is ambiguous, but perhaps this poem is at least in part a reflection on

insomnia. The poem juxtaposes opposites, a common theme in this collection, with the

contrast between the ruined empty shell, and the playing children. The piano remains at

pp throughout the song, with the voice, in contrast, reaching mf.

“Le front comme un drapeau perdu” is a “trampoline song,” serving a

connecting purpose between the serenity of songs1 and 2, and the drama that begins in

song 4. The song begins in violence with a quick pace, loud dynamics, and sharp

articulation. The character of the loved one appears for the first time. A brief legato

period marks “Je ne veux pas le lâcher tes mains claires et compliquées.”

I do not want to let them go

your clear and complex hands
born in the enclosed mirror of my own

These are the same hands that the poet grasps in the final song. The faster pace and

agitation in this connecting song enhance the surreal darkness of the following song

through contrast.

Poulenc's instructions for “Une roulotte couverte en tuiles” are “very slow and

sinister.” This poem, which Éluard titled “Curtain,” is strange and dark.

a gypsy wagon roofed with tiles

the horse dead a child master
thinking his brow blue with hatred
of two breasts beating down upon him
like two fists
this melodrama rips
reason from our hearts.

32
The title “Curtain” implies “the recall of a distant image,” or the “dramatization of a

memory” (Buckland and Chiménes 1999, 166). The slow tempo, simple chordal

accompaniment, and speech-like vocal line create a somber mood. Bernac advises the

performer to take great care in preserving the legato (Bernac 1997, 294).

The second “trampoline song” is no. 5, “A toutes brides” (“Riding full tilt”). As

the title suggests, the song, marked prestissimo, takes off “riding full tilt.” The poetry

aggressively asserts that the woman's insatiable desires are not imagined. The poet

invites her to “give way to the fire that drives you to despair.”

riding full tilt you whose phantom

prances at night on a violin
come and reign in the woods

the lashings of the tempest

seek their path by way of you
you are not among those whose desires are imagined

your thirsts are more contradictory

than those of the drowned

come then and drink a kiss here

give way to the fire that drives you to despair.

Carol Kimball points out that the G, D, A, and E in the piano's first few measures depict

the tuning of the poet’s violin (Figure 4.3) (Kimball 2005, 228). This song presents stark

contrasts to the two that surround it, the sinister “Une roulette” and the pure “Une herbe

pauvre” through contrast. While those two songs may evoke opposing emotions, they

share the same slow pace and surreal atmosphere, so Poulenc juxtaposed the connective

“A toutes brides” between them.

33
 Figure 4.3 Poulenc: Tel jour, telle nuit, “A toute brides.” Tuning violin

“Une herbe pauvre” depicts the fleeting nature of life’s pleasures. Poulenc

enhances Éluard’s poetry brilliantly with an exceedingly simple and exquisite

accompaniment and melody. Poulenc's instructions are “clear, sweet and slow.” A blade

of grass peeks up from snow but, as quickly as it is seen, it fades.

Scant grass
wild
appeared in the snow
my mouth marveled
at the savor of pure air it had
it was withered

The voice and piano begin p, crescendo as the blade of grass appears, but returns subito p

when it withers. Upon repeating the first two lines, the voice and piano are hushed to a

pp.

Regarding “Je n'ai envie de t'aimer,” Poulenc instructed Bernac, “This charming

poem of happy love must be sung in a single curve, a single impulse.” Bernac warns,

however, that it “must never give a feeling of agitation” (Bernac 1977, 104). The poet

34
has folded his lover into his solipsistic solitude, filling the void in his life with his image

of her.

To see nothing more in your eyes

than what I think of you
and of a world in your likeness
and days and nights determined by your eyes.

Stark dynamic contrasts are clearly indicated. The song ends on a strangely sad sounding

minor chord, which gives way to the sudden violence of the next song.

“Figure de force brûlante et farouche” is the final “trampoline song” of the cycle.

The violence and agitation of the song, with its dramatic final chord, heighten the

intimacy of at the beginning of the next and final song. For the first time in the cycle,

real anger is unleashed. Éluard “sees this rigid, unyielding negation of life as the

ultimate place of trapped enclosure––a prison” (Buckland and Chiméres 1999, 169). In

Figure 4.4, Poulenc creates a strikingly sudden dynamic and textural contrast at the line,

“Aux veines des temples (To the veins of the temples).” The variable meter adds to the

sense of unbridled anger.

Figure 4.4 Poulenc: Tel jour, telle nuit, “Figure de force.” Textural contrast

35
 Image of fiery wild forcefulness
black hair wherein the gold flows
on corrupt nights
engulfed gold tainted star
in a bed never shared

to the veins of the temples

as to the tips of the breasts
life denies itself
no one can blind the eyes
drink their brilliance or their tears
the blood above them triumphs for itself alone

intractable unbounded
useless
this health builds a prison

Following the final dramatic chord in “Figure de force brûlante et farouche,” the

last song of the cycle projects us into an utterly different world. “Nous avons fait la nuit

(We made the night together),” considered one of Poulenc’s finest, is a love sung of

unrivaled lyricism and beauty. The cycle is rounded out by an instantly recognizable

relation to the first song, shown in Figure 4.5. The melodic ascending scale and the

octave duple figures in the piano link this song to the first. The poetry depicts two lovers

falling asleep together. As the poet's lover falls asleep, he marvels at the stranger that she

becomes; all that he loves about her is forever new. By incorporating abrupt dynamic

changes while maintaining a consistent texture and tempo, Poulenc echoes one of the

pervasive themes in Éluard's poetry, the unity of opposites. The long and beautiful

postlude has provoked comparisons to the endings of two earlier, famous song cycles,

Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Schubert’s Die Winterreise. The final measures of the

postlude return to both the key and the tempo of “Bonne journée”, bringing the cycle to a

satisfying conclusion.

36
Figure 4.5 Poulenc: Tel jour, telle nuit, “Nous avons fait.” Resemblance to “Bonne journée”

Francis Poulenc was one of the most famous and most successful composers of

art song of his time. His love of poetry and sensitivity to its interpretation gave him a

great advantage over other composers but, more than this, it was his relationships that

shaped him as a composer. His friendships with Paul Éluard and Pierre Bernac forever

altered the course of his life, and his interactions with others close to him inspired the

creation of other timeless works. These relationships will be further examined in the next

chapter, as they are the focus of Jake Heggie's Homage to Poulenc.

37
 Chapter V

HOMAGE TO POULENC

Jake Heggie and His Idol

Jake Heggie is an American composer from Florida who has been very successful

recently as a writer of opera and art song. Heggie's most famous works include the

operas Dead Man Walking and Moby-Dick. One of his more recent compositions is a

song cycle for tenor titled Friendly Persuasions. In 2008, Malcom Martineau, a British

pianist approached Jake Heggie to ask him about the possibility of writing a song cycle as

an exploration of the music of Francis Poulenc. Heggie, who idolizes Poulenc, was

immediately taken by the idea. (“Poulenc is one of my gods” says Heggie, cited in Wylie

2011, 14).

Heggie decided not to use existing poetry, but rather to commission a new work,

based on Poulenc's life and experiences. “I went to Gene [Scheer] for advice. He had

read a biography of Poulenc, and what struck him were the seminal relationships and

friendships in Poulenc’s life that changed his way of thinking. These were the people that

persuaded him to look at the world in a different way” (Wylie 2011, 14). Heggie

commissioned Gene Scheer to write the poetry for the cycle and titled it Friendly

Persuasions: Homage to Poulenc. It is a four-song cycle in which each song is named

for an influential person in Poulenc's life and captures a defining moment in that

relationship. Wanda Landowska, the famous harpsichordist and close friend and

confidant of Poulenc, is the subject of the first song. The song “Pierre Bernac” narrates

the incident prior to the composition of Tel jour telle nuit when Poulenc tossed a

38
completed manuscript into a fire. The loss of his dear friend Raymonde Linnossier is the

subject of the eponymous third song, and the final song focuses on Poulenc's friendship

with Paul Éluard. The original version for tenor and piano was premiered by Malcom

Martineau and John Mark Ainsley in 2008. Soon afterward, a chamber version for tenor,

flute, oboe, cello, and harpsichord was premiered in Los Angeles.

Wanda Landowska

In 1928, Poulenc proposed marriage to Raymonde Linnossier. It was to be a

marriage of convenience, as Poulenc was by now an openly gay man. Raymonde

declined the offer, to Poulenc’s great disappointment. This happened during an

emotionally conflicted period in Poulenc’s life, when the composer had begun to fall in

love with the young painter Richard Chanlaire. Wanda Landowska was a close friend of

Poulenc, who often sought her counsel on personal matters. Landowska was a brilliant

harpsichordist, credited with reviving the instrument. She asked her friend to write for

her a concerto, and Poulenc happily agreed. His personal preoccupations, however, and

specifically with Richard Chanlaire, delayed the completion of the concerto. While the

sympathetic Landowska acted as a “fairy godmother presiding over his relationship with

Chanlaire” (Ivry 1996, 69), she did not appreciate the delayed completion of her

concerto. Gene Scheer quotes Landowska: “'My God, my God!' she said, 'whatever shall

I do? My concerto, why are you so late?'” (Heggie 2008, 1). When Poulenc complained

of his difficulties with Chanlaire, Landowska replied, “Stop wasting time! Go and get

him! Do it now. And then, for God's sake, finish my concerto!” (Heggie 2008, 10).

39
 The quick figures at the beginning and end of the song in the harpsichord (shown

in Figure 5.1) part are reminiscent of the Concert champêtre that Poulenc eventually

finished for Landowska. The fast pace of the song slows for the middle section, when

Landowska stops yelling in order to comfort her friend. The texture in the

accompaniment lightens and the tempo slows as the singer portrays the sympathetic

Landowska. The quick, arpeggiated harpsichord figures return accelerando upon

Landowska's final exclamation, “finish my concerto!”

Fig

ure

5.1

He

ggie: Friendly Persuasions “Wanda Landowska.” Opening measures

Pierre Bernac

Poulenc's collaboration with Pierre Bernac was one of the most important of his

career. Poulenc wrote many songs specifically for Bernac and involved the singer

intimately in the composition process. He valued Bernac’s opinion so highly that, on at

least one occasion, he destroyed an almost competed work upon Bernac's disapproval.

This song depicts that event as Pierre Bernac recalls it in his book, Francis Poulenc: The

Man and His Songs.

During the 1936 Christmas season, Poulenc was writing a cycle for Bernac based

on Plain-Chant, a collection of poems by Jean Cocteau. The two had a recital

approaching in February. As Poulenc played the new cycle for Bernac, the singer’s

40
disapproval must have been apparent despite his silence, because his friend instantly

threw the manuscript into the fireplace. Bernac was horrified, but Poulenc reassured him

that he would write something better. (Bernac, 1977, 39).

The busy opening orchestral accompaniment suggests a working environment.

The tenor in this song assumes the character of Poulenc, who narrates the event.

Beginning in m. 12, Heggie changes the accompaniment altogether to mimic style of a

French mélodie as Poulenc plays for his friend Bernac. The harmonic rhythm slows to

one chord per measure, and the flowing legato of the pseudo-Poulenc melody set to

Cocteau’s poetry contrasts sharply with the rest of the song. Heggie abandons this song-

within-a-song at the moment when Poulenc notices Bernac's uncomfortable disapproval.

He tosses the song on the fire and begins to compose again. Heggie depicts Poulenc’s

return to the piano by once again briefly mimicking the French composer’s style, while

the tenor, still assuming Poulenc's character, sings the words “Tel jour telle nuit,”

reminding us that out of this strange incident came one of Poulenc's most heralded

achievements.

Raymonde Linnossier

Poulenc and Linnossier had been friends since childhood. He proposed to her not

directly but in a letter to her sister Alice. In the letter, he explained that it would be an

open marriage, and she would be free to visit Japan whenever she wanted to meet with

her lover, who lived there. He hoped that since her lover was in Japan, and he had no

sexual desire for women, their marriage would be convenient for both of them.

41
Raymonde, however, refused his proposal, despite which the two remained close friends

for years. Raymonde died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1930. Poulenc was devastated

and would never completely recover. In a letter to Raymonde's sister, Poulenc said, “All

my youth departs with her, all that part of my life that belonged only to her” (Ivry 2006,

74). In Heggie's song, Gene Scheer paraphrases this letter. The tenor again assumes the

character of Poulenc, who mourns, “Raymonde Linnossier, all of my youth departed with

you. Part of my life will always belong to you” (Heggie 2008, 23). For the rest of his

life, Poulenc carried with him mementos to remember her by: her cigarette case and a

picture of her that he would place on his nightstand wherever he was staying.

This song is exceedingly lyrical and singable, in contrast to the other three.

Heggie uses different tonal areas to structure the song (an ABAB form), differentiate

between different forms of address, and to capture the idea of loss. The A section melody

begins somberly in Bb minor, as the singer refers to Raymonde in the third person,

comparing her to a green leaf that falls from its tree too soon. When the metaphor is

broken and the tenor-as-Poulenc addresses his departed friend directly, as if she were still

alive, the tonality abruptly shifts to the brighter C major. The major tonality marks the

arrival of the B section, which contains the song's main theme. The final iteration of the

words “part of my life” in the B melody is tonally ambiguous, both in the melodic line

and in accompaniment; only the bass line suggests the final C-major V–I cadence of the

middle section. The presence of D-flats, B-flats, and A-flats over this C-major cadence

foreshadows the return of the A section, once again in the key of Bb minor. At m. 63,

Heggie inserts another brief, tonally ambiguous passage on the text “yearns for

42
something lost.” This sudden departure from the main tonality temporarily jolts the

listener, but Heggie immediately returns to Bb major on the appropriate text, “leads me

back to you” (Figure 5.3).

Figure 5.2 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Raymonde Linnossier.” Tonal ambiguity

Figure 5.3 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Raymonde Linnossier.” Return to B-flat major

43
The repeat of the B section, like the original iteration, is in a major key, this time Eb

major. It too closes with a tonally ambiguous passage, leaving the listener with a sense of

unresolved emotion. The final chord has no harmonic function. (Figure 5.4)

Figure 5.4 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Raymonde Linnossier.” Final chord

Paul Éluard

The final song depicts a shared moment between Poulenc and his friend Paul

Éluard during the Second World War after the Germans had invaded Paris. While both

artists were sympathetic to the resistance, Éluard was far more vocal, and Poulenc was

silenced by fear. Poulenc's anti-war works were not published until the war was over.

Poulenc admired his friend's courage and was also shamed by it. In the song, the tenor

again assumes the role of Poulenc as narrator. He composes as Éluard listens. Poulenc

agonizes over his fear, but draws strength from Éluard's words and the music that is born

from them.

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 The song is in a rondo from (ABACA). Heggie creates stark contrasts between each

section, highlighting the contrast between Poulenc's fear and Éluard's bold poetry. The

song begins with a simple but violent-sounding accompaniment, with an equally severe

melody. Heggie dispenses with any legato, marking the music “Stark” and writing a

harpsichord part that beats time in alternating octaves (Figure 5.5). Poulenc, again as

narrator, describes the war that rages in Europe and in the poetry of Éluard alike. He

states that the Germans have taken Paris and then sits at the piano to play. The music

immediately calms as the legato of Poulenc's playing takes over, but the protagonist-cum-

narrator is jerked back to reality in m. 15 with the abrupt, stark return of the main theme,

when the focus of the text again returns to Éluard (Figure 5.6). In the C section, the

legato articulation returns as Poulenc cowers in fear, awaiting the unknown. The main

theme returns abruptly again, as Poulenc is inspired by Éluard's poetry: “Each phrase

born from Resistance... finally touches the clean, clear north of me” (Heggie 2008, 37).

Figure 5.5 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Paul Éluard.” Opening measures

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 Figure 5.6 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Paul Éluard.” Textural contrast

Contrasts in Heggie's Homage and Tel jour telle nuit

Poulenc's Tel jour telle nuit is a study in contrasts; the “trampoline” songs differ

in tempo, texture, and mood from the songs they connect. Heggie's Friendly Persuasions

also takes advantage of contrast to enhance the moods of his songs. These contrasts are

always sharp and abrupt to capture the listener's attention. In “Wanda Landowska,” he

uses contrasts in tempo and texture to highlight Landowska's impatience and Poulenc's

ennui (Figure 5.7).

Figure 5.7 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Wanda Landowska”

In Pierre Bernac, contrasts in style and harmonic rhythm evoke the chaos of

Poulenc's creative process, as well as the calm serenity of the compositions themselves.

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Disjunct, detached melodic figures accompany the dialogue, while legatos and ties

characterize Poulenc's composition. (Figure 5.8)

Figure 5.8 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Pierre Bernac”

In Raymonde Linnossier, contrasts in tonality separate reality from fond memory

(Figure 5.9). Minor tonality accompanies Poulenc's memory of Linnossier, while abrupt

shifts to major keys mark Poulenc’s crying out to her directly.

Figure 5.9 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Raymonde Linnossier”

Finally, in “Paul Éluard,” dynamic and stylistic contrasts separate Poulenc's fear

from the boldness of Éluard's poetry (Figure 5.10).

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 Figure 5.10 Heggie: Friendly Persuasions “Paul Éluard”

Conclusion

While Heggie does not imitate Poulenc's compositional style in his homage, except to

depict Poulenc at the piano, he may have borrowed from Poulenc the technique of using

musical contrast to set textual oppositions in relief. Though he may not have intended to

capture the style of Poulenc's composition, he certainly succeeded in capturing the frantic

and passionate style of Poulenc's life.

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 Chapter VI

JOHN CORIGLIANO

Three Irish Folksong Settings

John Corigliano is a popular American composer whose music is eclectic, ranging from

neo-classical to serial; in his refusal to espouse any one style and his refashioning of a

variety of historical styles, he may be called a post-modernist. His Three Irish Folksong

Settings for Flute and Tenor are an experiment in yet another musical idiom, folk music.

Corigliano's Pied Piper Fantasy, written in 1982 for Sir James Galway, was his first

experiment with Irish flute music. In the words of the composer, “Six years later, I tried

to explore the more poetic side of Irish flute music in these settings of folk or folk-like

texts by W.B. Yeats, Padraic Colum, and an anonymous author” (Corigliano 1991). The

work is not only explores Irish flute music but also experiments with counterpoint. The

tenor is accompanied only by a flute, and the interplay between the voices is the primary

feature of the work. Corigliano requires far more virtuosity of the flutist, the tenor

merely singing the folksongs in their original, recognizable form.

In the first song, the flute does not depart far from the tonality established by the

singer. Experiments with rhythm in the flute part create a challenge for both performers.

The most interesting rhythmic feature is the simultaneity of different meters. The meter

of the song is a simple 4/4, but most of the flute part is in a “quasi 7/8,” as Corigliano

marks it in the score. The flute only adopts the tenor’s simple meter twice, during both

instances of the text, “She bid me take life easy.” Corigliano uses dotted bar lines to aid

the performers in coordinating the asymmetrical meter, and presumably, to instruct the

49
flutist to play each eighth-note figure identically, not placing emphasis on the strong beats

of the melody (Figure 6.1). To the listener, the effect is very interesting. The eighth-note

figure seems to align with the melody at a slightly different point each time. The

difficulty for the performers is to maintain the integrity of the two meters.

Figure 6.1 Corigliano, Three Irish Folksongs, “The Salley Gardens.” Simultaneous meters

The flute introduces the melody of the second song. When the tenor takes over,

however, the listener may be confused, as he enters in a key very distantly related to the

original. The flute immediately adjusts to join the tenor in his key of E minor (Figure

6.2). This strange juxtaposition of unrelated keys occurs throughout the piece. Each time

the flute takes over the melody, the tonality abruptly shifts across the circle of fifths to the

key of C#. Rhythmic alignment is a challenge in this song. Ties and dotted triplet figures

abound, as well as flourishing figures that give groups of pitches rhythmic value as a

group, but no specific value individually. At times, the two voices will continue for

multiple measures without lining up at all rhythmically, but when the two parts finally do

align, the satisfying effect is akin to the resolution of harmonic dissonance (Figure 6.3).

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 Figure 6.2 Corigliano; Three Irish Folksongs, “The Foggy Dew.” Abrupt modulation

Figure 6.3 Corigliano: Three Irish Folksongs, “The Salley Gardens.” Rhythmic alignment

The flute and tenor voices are especially independent in the first verse of the third

song. Portions of the flute line are tonally ambiguous, but it does, for most part, remain

centered around F, the key of the melody. Rhythmic alignment is scarce in the first verse,

with the flute often defying the compound meter through the use of ties, triplets, and

quadruplet figures. In most of the second verse, by contrast, the flute doubles the tenor

two octaves higher. Compromise is reached in the third verse, when the flute neither

doubles nor defies the melody, but complements it (Figure 6.4).

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Figure 6.4 Corigliano: Three Irish Folksongs, “She Moved Through the Fair”

52
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